Zarch
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- For the city of Zarch in Iran see: Zarch (city).
| Zarch | |
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| Developer(s) | David Braben |
| Release date(s) | 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Third-person Shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Acorn Archimedes |
| Media | One 3.5" floppy disk |
| Input | Mouse |
Zarch is a computer game written by David Braben (better known as the co-author of Elite) in three months in 1987, for the release of the Acorn Archimedes computer. It was groundbreaking for the time, featuring a three-dimensional mouse-controlled craft (the "lander") flying over a tile-rendered landscape that dazzled reviewers in a primarily 2D-dominated game industry - ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) magazine led with the headline "SOLID 3D - the future of games?" when it reviewed Zarch with a score of 979, the highest rating ACE had given at that time, only bettered by the later Amiga port Virus at 981. Zarch started off as a demo called Lander and was bundled with almost all releases of the Acorn Archimedes. Zarch was later renamed as Virus and ported to the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC compatible and ZX Spectrum. A few clones/games based on Zarch have also been created fairly recently, namely a version for Linux, also called Zarch, a remake for Windows (written in Blitz BASIC) called Z-Virus, and a version crossing Zarch with Pac-Man called ZarchMan (see External Links below).
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[edit] Gameplay
The plot of the game is reminiscent of the arcade game Defender, in that the player, piloting a lone craft with limited firepower, must defend a finite landscape against ever increasing waves of enemy craft. In Zarch, the landscape is being invaded by aliens who are spreading a virus across the landscape. The seeder vessels are slow-moving, predictable, and easily destroyed, but as the game progresses they are supported by increasing numbers of flying support craft, which do not scatter virus but instead attack the player.
The seeder vessels scatter red virus particles across the landscape. As they land, they turn the green landscape to brown and red, and cause the trees to mutate. Some flying enemies shoot the mutated trees, to cause themselves to become much more aggressive and dangerous. To clear each attack wave, the player must destroy all enemy vessels.
At the conclusion of each attack wave the player is awarded bonus points for the amount of landscape which remains uninfected. After four attack waves have been successfully repelled, the player is awarded a new landscape; however, there is comparatively less land and more water, making complete infection more likely.
The lander, although agile, is extremely vulnerable, and may be destroyed by a single enemy shot.
No powerups are available in the game, although the player has a limited number of smart missiles, and smart bombs and is awarded a new one of each with each extra life. Some enemy craft are so agile as to be able to out-manoeuvre the missiles, and the smart bombs have a very limited range.
[edit] Radar screen
In the top left of the screen is displayed a "radar-screen", which provides a map of the whole landscape, with the position of the lander and enemy craft marked on it. Uninfected territory appears green; infected territory appears red. The radar detection is provided by rotating scanning-towers which are evenly spaced across the landscape; accidental destruction of these results in loss of detection in that area, and black squares appear on the map.
[edit] Notable enemies
In some levels a fish-like enemy can be seen patrolling randomly on the water. It does not directly threaten the player, nor is its destruction required to complete the level. It does not appear on radar. When destroyed it emits a puff of virus particles, and bonus points are awarded. Some players insist the fish enemy can be found on every level with diligent searching.
In advanced levels a high-altitude, fast-moving bomber craft appears, dropping packets of virus particles in profusion. This craft is difficult to destroy, since the angle needed for the lander to match its speed is such that the cannon cannot easily be brought to bear. Meanwhile, it delivers huge amounts of virus to the landscape.
[edit] Controlling the lander
The lander has a single thruster pointing directly downwards beneath it. Firing the thruster causes the lander to fly straight upwards. The lander has a flight ceiling above which the thruster will not fire. To fly in any direction requires the lander to be tilted in that direction. The lander can only pitch and yaw; it cannot roll. Too much tilt can cause the lander to turn upside-down, a position which may be difficult to recover, and can cause the player to crash the lander by accidentally thrusting downwards.
Zarch is a notoriously difficult game for beginners. Controls are extremely sensitive; simply moving the mouse can cause the lander to explode on the launchpad. It play experience became notorious for flipping a novice user upside-down to send them plummeting to the ground. With practice the controls become second nature and the sensitivity means that the player has a lot of control over the lander, so making the game even more enjoyable.
The lander expends fuel and must occasionally return to the launchpad to refuel, with successful landings being extremely difficult. The lander must be completely level to land. While refuelling, it is extremely vulnerable to attack from the air.
Every round fired costs 1 point, and the lander is equipped with a rapid-fire autocannon. This makes it possible to achieve a negative final score if one doesn't actually hit anything. At such times the game dryly points out that such entities as slugs and dried up bits of lichen have been known to get better scores than that.
[edit] Graphical environment
The player flies the lander over an undulating landscape of square tiles. Trees, buildings and enemies are drawn in filled light-sourced polygons. In Virus, there is no light-sourcing and the game looks more primitive (although plays very well). The game also provides very effective particle system effects to depict the thrust from the lander, explosions, the virus spreading over the landscape, and assorted other phenomena such as splashes when shots strike water, and puffs of dust when they strike land. At altitude, when the ground cannot be seen, dust particles in the air give the impression of movement and speed.
Shadows of the lander and enemies are projected onto the ground. Skilled players can follow movements of enemy craft by their shadows, even when they are not visible on the screen.
[edit] Lander
Lander was a demo version of Zarch bundled with new Acorn Archimedes computers, as an illustration of their capabilities. Although the graphical environment, controls and handling of the lander were similar to the released version of the game, neither enemies nor virus were present on the landscape. Points were awarded for destroying trees and buildings.
While the lander was stationary on the launchpad, moving the mouse (which would normally tilt the attitude of the craft) would cause it to immediately explode. This bug was fixed in Virus: the craft would not explode while sitting on the launchpad, but only if a landing were attempted while the craft was not level.
[edit] Clones
Apart from Virus, the Amiga game Zeewolf and its sequels are very similar in theme and graphic style to Zarch, although they use a different engine.
The followup to Zarch was a game using the same landscape engine, called Conqueror. In this game, the player controls a tank, and fights enemy tanks in a realistic manner.
